Rosamund Marriott Watson
Rosamund (Ball) Marriott Watson (October 6, 1860 - December 29, 1911) was an English poet, nature writer, and critic Youth and education Watson was born Rosamund Ball, known as Rose', the 5th child of Benjamin Williams Ball, an accountant and amateur poet, and Sylvia (Good). Her older brother Wilfrid Ball became a painter of landscapes and marine subjects, who helped introduce her to London's literary circles, including John Lane, the influential publisher of The Yellow Book. Her mother died of cancer when she was just 13, and she would later recall that one consequence of this was that she had an unusual amount of freedom to pursue reading and writing. No records of any formal education for the young Ball have been found. She initially intended to become a painter but her father forbade it; her aesthetic sensibilities would later shape her writing about gardens and interior design. Career Watson began her writing career in 1883, with a column on "modern" fashion for the Fortnightly Review. She followed this up with other magazine writing, and by 1886 she had gotten her first poems printed in the American periodicals Scribner's Magazine and the New York Independent.Hughes, Linda K. Graham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of Letters. Ohio University Press, 2005. These early works were mostly published under one or other of the pseudonyms –"Rushworth Armytage or "R. Armytage" –which she adopted following her 1879 marriage to George Francis Armytage, a rich Australian. Their daughter Eulalie was born the following year, but by September 1884, when their 2nd daughter, Daphne, was born, the couple had parted ways and would later divorce. Around 1886, she eloped with artist Arthur Graham Tomson, shortly afterwards dropping the Armytage pseudonym in favor of "Graham R. Tomson". During her years with Tomson, they lived in London and often summered in Cornwall. She later divorced Tomson as well and lived with novelist H.B. Marriott Watson until her death; they never married, although some of her obituaries referred to her as his wife. They had a son, Richard, who was killed in World War I. Watson's poems were published in various contemporary magazines and journals, including The Yellow Book. Her major volumes of poetry were Tares (1884), The Bird-Bride (1886), A Summer Night (1891), Vespertilia and Other Verses (1895), and After Sunset (1904). Tares, which was published as her first marriage was breaking up and focuses on the disillusionments of love, was issued anonymously. Watson used the Tomson pseudonym for The Bird-Bride and for the first edition of A Summer Night. In working under pseudonyms, Watson was part of a late 19th-century trend among women writers trying to break into male-dominated literary circles. It appears to have helped her, since the influential editor Andrew Lang praised one of her early poems under the belief that it was by a man. Once Watson established herself in London's literary scene, later editions of A Summer Night carried her real name, as did her subsequent books, including the 1900 novel An Island Rose. Watson wrote prolifically on gardening, and her essays on the subject (together with a few of her poems) were published in The Heart of a Garden (1906). She also wrote several columns on interior design and fashion—her first-ever publication, in 1883, was a column on 'modern' fashion for the Fortnightly Review. Some of these columns were collected in The Art of the House (1897). She wrote a column entitled "Wares of Autolycous" for the Pall Mall Gazette.Fisher, Benjamin F. "Graham R.: Rosamund Marriott Watson, Woman of Letters" (book review). South Central Review, vol. 25, no. 2 (Summer 2008), pp. 109-111. Starting in 1892, Watson edited the magazine Sylvia's Journal, a progressive, feminist-leaning women's monthly, which covered a range of topics from work and art to the domestic sphere. Contributors under her tenure included Violet Hunt, Edith Nesbit, and others, and Watson herself wrote a book column, "Book Gossip". In 1892, a long interview with Watson was published in Arnold Bennett's journal Woman. Watson died of cancer at the age of 51. Writing Watson's major success came from her poetry, which stood in the lineages of Alfred Lord Tennyson and Dante Gabriel Rossetti without, at its best, being derivative. Technically accomplished, Watson deployed a wide range of poetic forms and methods, including sonnets, ballads, rondeaux, villanelles, dialect verse, and translations.Le Gallienne, Richard. "Graham R. Tomson (Rosamund Marriott Watson) (1860–1911)". In Miles, Alfred H., ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. Her subject matter ranged from nature, the supernatural, legends, and folk tales to love, loss, and art itself.Blain, Virginia. Victorian Women Poets: An Annotated Anthology. Routledge, 2013. Although the poems can be mannered, her clarity of insight and feminist rereadings of traditional stories have kept her work fresh, while her penchant for formal experimentation presaged modernism. Recognition Her collected poems were published in 1912 with an introduction by H.B. Marriott Watson. Publications Poetry *''Border Ballads''. London: Walter Scott, 1888. *''Tares: A book of verses. London, Kegan Paul, Trench, 1884; Portland, ME: Thomas B. Mosher, 1898, 1906. *''The Bird-Bride: a Volume of Ballads and Sonnets (1889; as Tomson) *''The Patchwork Quilt''. London: Ernest Nister / New York: Dutton, 1891, 1900. *''A Summer Night, and other poems. London: Methuen, 1891; London: John Lane / Chicago: Way & Williams, 1895. *Vespertilia, and other verses. London: John Lane / Chicago: Way & Williams, 1895. *''Old Books, Fresh Flowers. Gouverneur, NY: privately published, printed at the Adirondack Press, 1899. *''After Sunset''. London & New York: John Lane, 1904. *''Poems. London & New York: John Lane, 1912. Novel *''An Island Rose. London: E. Nister, 1900. Nonfiction *''The Art of the House. London: George Bell, 1897, 1907. *''The Heart of a Garden. London: A. Moring, 1906; London: De La Mare, 1907. *''The Lamp and the Lute''. 1912. Edited *''Ballads of the North Countrie. London: Walter Scott, 1888. *Concerning Cats: A book of poems by many authors. London: T.F. Unwin, 1892. ''Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Rosamunc Marriott Watson, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 8, 2017. See also *List of British poets References External links ;Poems *Watson in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "Le Mauvais Larron," "Deid Folks' Ferry," "Hereafter," "The Farm on the Links," "To My Cat," "Ave Atque Vale" ;Audio / video * ;About *Foremother Poet: Rosamund Marriott Watson *Rosamond Marriott Watson at the UI Victorian Wiki *Rosamund Marriott Watson tribute site, featuring her collected poems in PDF format *[http://contentdm.baylor.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/09ablwpc&CISOPTR=51987&REC=2 Full text of The Patchwork Quilt] Category:English art critics Category:1860 births Category:1911 deaths Category:English women poets Category:Pseudonymous writers Category:Women critics Category:19th-century poets Category:19th-century women writers Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:English women writers Category:Poets Category:Victorian poets Category:Women poets